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These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they there received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except of the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompany readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collections and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

Validation data (Human Trafficking Data, n = 180) was collected through 180 structured interviews with victim service provider clients who responded to the screening tool. The screening tool was administered by the victim service providers at regular intakes or subsequent interview sessions between July 2012 and June 2013. Service providers were instructed to invite any potential trafficking victims, that is persons who may have been trafficked or subject to similar crimes, whom they judge to be emotionally stable enough to participate. Status as a trafficking victim did not have to be determined in advance of the interview, since a mix of trafficked and non-trafficked clients in the study sample was necessary to establish the validity and predictive ability of the screening tool.

Researchers also conducted confidential case file reviews during site visits at partner agencies, and in-depth interviews with service providers (n = 12 from 11 agencies), clients (n = 7 from 6 agencies) and key informant interviews (n = 12) with law enforcement officers, prosecutors and probation officers.

Recent research has identified numerous challenges facing victims of labor trafficking in the U.S. (Owens, et al., 2014; Brennan, 2014). Most of the research on labor trafficking occurring in the U.S., however, has focused on the experiences of non-citizen and foreign national victims. There are many reasons to suspect that labor trafficking victimization occurs among U.S. citizens, although the identification of this phenomenon has been difficult. For example, the homeless and those with insecure housing, individuals with intellectual and physical disability, low-wage and transitional workers, and those working in illicit economic markets or within sexualized labor services are anticipated to be at higher risk for labor trafficking victimization.

In this exploratory mixed-methods study, the research team answered four main questions to help illuminate the phenomenon of labor trafficking of U.S. citizens.

1. What are the personal, economic, or structural vulnerabilities that put U.S. citizens at risk for labor trafficking?
2. What does labor trafficking looks like for U.S. citizens and where does it fall on a continuum of labor exploitation?
3. How are U.S. citizens recruited into, move to, experience, and escape from labor trafficking victimization?
4. How do U.S. citizen labor trafficking victims seek help or exit exploitative labor situations?

These questions were answered through surveys with individuals at high risk for labor trafficking victimization across four U.S. sites (n=240), individual interviews with a subsample of survey respondents (n=27), and interviews with service providers (n=20). The surveyed population were citizens who were born in the U.S., those who were naturalized citizens at the time of their victimization, and legal permanent residents. The sampling strategy relied on several snowball and purposive sampling techniques and were developed in partnership with social service agencies, government agencies, and community contacts with knowledge of or contact with labor trafficking in each of the sites. As such, the study was not designed to generate prevalence estimation or to claim any representativeness of labor trafficking violations among U.S. citizens.

This collection only includes the quantitative survey data. Qualitative interview data are not available.

Although researchers have begun to piece together a picture of the characteristics of vulnerable individuals, participating industries, and exploitative practices that may lead to labor trafficking, few studies have systematically reviewed labor trafficking cases known to victim service providers and law enforcement officials in the United States. As a result, little is known about the phenomenon of labor trafficking and the illicit networks that support it.

For example, it is not known if those networks that facilitate certain types of labor exploitation also facilitate certain types of labor trafficking. This study seeks to address these gaps in knowledge by providing foundational information about labor trafficking victimization and the illicit networks that facilitate it across a range of industries.

This study was guided by three research questions:

1. What is the nature of the labor trafficking victimization experience in the United States?
2. How are domestic and international labor trafficking syndicates operating in the United States organized? Who are the traffickers, and what is their connection to other illicit networks that help facilitate labor trafficking operations?
3. What are the challenges of law enforcement agents investigating labor trafficking cases identified by victim service providers? Why are so few identified labor trafficking cases investigated by law enforcement and prosecuted?

This objective of this study was to identify promising practices in labor trafficking identification and response in five U.S. counties that have demonstrated innovation and commitment to addressing the problem of labor trafficking. Innovative strategies included dedicated labor trafficking investigators, specialized units within county district attorneys' offices, and a statewide multidisciplinary team approach that incorporates efforts to identify and respond to labor trafficking.

Through a review of closed case records and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 73 anti-labor trafficking stakeholders, this study sought to investigate how labor trafficking came to be prioritized in these jurisdictions and how labor trafficking response is situated in the unique policy, legal, and cultural frameworks of each participating county. This project also explored the ways in which labor trafficking enforcement is understood and operationalized as distinct from sex trafficking enforcement and identifies the challenges addressing labor trafficking with which these five U.S. counties continue to struggle despite their prioritization and established frameworks. Research questions for this study were:

1. Are there patterns in the characteristics of labor trafficking cases identified by law enforcement at the state and local level?
2. How does the identification and investigation of labor trafficking cases differ from that of sex trafficking cases in terms of case characteristics, collaboration within and among agencies, case resolutions, and case outcomes?
3. What are the features of successful labor trafficking investigations?

This collection contains case-level (DS1) and victim-level (DS2) data extracted from closed case records obtained from agencies involved in the study, and qualitative coding summaries containing direct quotes from the interview respondents (DS3). Due to disclosure risk, verbatim interview transcripts were not archived.